System and method for segmenting and targeting audience members

ABSTRACT

Methods and apparatus for delivering content to an audience member via one or more mediums based on an audience member profile are disclosed. Profile data for audience members may be initially collected from an offline source, such as a registration or subscription database. The profile data may be stored in a dedicated database. The initial profile data may be supplemented periodically with data reflecting online activity by the audience member. The combined offline and online profile data may be used to group the audience members into segments. Audience member segments may be used to identify audience members who are targeted to receive like content. An audience member&#39;s inclusion in a segment may be indicated by storing a segment-targeting cookie on the audience member computer. Content may be delivered to the audience member based on identification of the segment in the segment-targeting cookie.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S.application Ser. No. 16/729,804, filed Dec. 30, 2019, which is acontinuation of and claims priority to U.S. application Ser. No.12/882,905, filed Sep. 15, 2010, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,552,865, issuedFeb. 4, 2020, which is a division of and claims priority to U.S.application Ser. No. 10/669,791, filed Sep. 25, 2003, now U.S. Pat. No.7,805,332, issued Sep. 28, 2010, which claims priority to U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 60/491,521, filed on Aug. 1, 2003,the entireties of which are incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a system and method for targeting thedelivery of content to selected audience members based on theintegration of diverse data into profile data relating to the selectedaudience members. The present invention may have particular use for thedelivery of content to selected audience members using the Internet,although the invention is not limited to delivery of content via thismeans

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Targeted marketing has long been known as an effective method forreaching consumers. When the consumer receives only relevant content(advertisements, etc.) from a provider, the consumer is more likely topatronize the particular provider, make purchases, and provideadditional personal information that may assist in refining theprovider's “view” of the consumer. As such, targeted marketing can leadto a more focused and robust interaction with the consumer. This,correspondingly, can lead to a more rewarding interaction for theprovider by generating increased revenue.

In order to effectively target a consumer, it may be desirable formarketing systems to react to consumer information received from avariety of online and offline sources. These sources may includedatabases and servers, as well as multiple web properties within anetwork of affiliated websites. Moreover, the consumer information maybe collected from a variety of sources in diverse formats. It may alsobe desirable for marketing systems to interact with the systems thatactually deliver the content to the user. In short, an effectivemarketing system may appreciate the characteristics and preferences of aspecific user regardless of the number or type of channels through whichcontact with the user is made.

Some known systems, however, are only adapted to receive informationfrom a single source (e.g., registration information provided by theconsumer). Other systems may receive information from multiple sources,but are unable to usefully combine information relating to the sameconsumer and communicate it to the necessary content delivery system.Thus, it may be desirable to have a system and method for deliveringcontent that integrates with and aggregates data from various sources,including the underlying systems that deliver content to the consumer.

Known systems for delivering targeted content to consumers are focusedon reaching the greatest quantity of consumers, without considering thevalue of interacting with each particular consumer. For example, somesystems may deliver “targeted” content to each member of a group ofconsumers based on the fact that each subscribes to the same magazine.These systems, however, do not consider that only a portion of the groupmay make on-line purchases, for example, in addition to subscribing tothe magazine. This failure to recognize and differentiate “valuable”consumers can lead to lost revenue for the content provider. Inaddition, the delivery of content to a significant volume of low-valueconsumers may expend valuable system resources. Accordingly, it may bedesirable to have a means of delivering the appropriate content to theappropriate user in order to maximize the value of the relationshipbetween the provider and the consumer.

In at least some embodiments, the system and method of the presentinvention may provide significant advantages over known marketingsystems. Some, but not necessarily all, embodiments of the presentinvention may provide a useful system and method for targeting thedelivery of content to selected consumers. It is an advantage of someembodiments of the present invention to efficiently collect andintegrate consumer data from a variety of online and offline sources. Itis an additional advantage of some embodiments of the present inventionto effectively deliver content to high-value consumers. Additionaladvantages of various embodiments of the invention are set forth, inpart, in the description that follows and, in part, will be apparent toone of ordinary skill in the art from the description and/or from thepractice of the invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Responsive to the foregoing challenges, Applicant has developed aninnovative method of delivering content to an audience member over aplurality of digital mediums based on an audience member profile. Themethod may comprise the steps of: providing the audience member accessto first and second digital mediums; providing an audience memberprofile common to both the first and second digital mediums; associatingthe audience member with a segment of audience members based on theaudience member profile: and delivering content to the audience membervia the first and second digital mediums based on the association of theaudience member with the segment of audience members.

Applicant has further developed an innovative method of deliveringcontent to an audience member based on an audience member comprising thesteps of: receiving a request for a first website page from the audiencemember; storing a cookie associated with the first website page in acomputer associated with the audience member; identifying a uniqueidentifier for the audience member in the cookie; associating theaudience member with profile data based on the unique identifier;associating the audience member with a segment of audience members basedon the profile data; and delivering content to the audience member basedon the association of the audience member with the segment of audiencemembers.

Applicants have further developed an innovative method of deliveringcontent to an audience member based on profile data, comprising thesteps of: storing audience member profile data in a database;associating the audience member with a segment of audience members basedon the profile data; identifying the segment of audience members with asegment identifier included in a segment-targeting cookie: storing thesegment-targeting cookie on a computer associated with the audiencemember; and delivering content to the audience member based on thesegment identifier.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only,and are not restrictive of the invention as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to assist the understanding of this invention, reference willnow be made to the appended drawings, in which like reference charactersrefer to like elements.

FIG. 1 is an exemplary block diagram of the system architecture inaccordance with a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary flow diagram of the steps performed in accordancewith the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary flow diagram of the steps performed to generateaudience member profiles in accordance with the first embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 4 is an exemplary flow diagram of the steps performed to trackwebsite pages visited by an audience member using a unique identifier inaccordance with the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an exemplary flow diagram of the steps performed to groupaudience members into segments for receipt of targeted content.

FIG. 6 is an exemplary flow diagram of the steps performed to directtargeted content to audience members in a segment.

FIG. 7 is an exemplary block diagram of the system architecture inaccordance with a second embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

One embodiment of the system 10 for carrying out a method embodiment ofthe present invention is shown in FIG. 1 . The system 10 includes afirst server 120 which hosts an extractor program 122. The first server120 is operatively connected to one or more offline databases 110, andone or more external content servers 160. The offline databases 110 andexternal content servers 160 are also operatively connected to one ormore web servers 170. The web servers 170 may provide website pages toan audience member computer 180 in a conventional manner. The webservers 170 are also operatively connected to a targeting engine program152 resident on a second server 150. The first and second servers 120and 150 may be operatively connected to a third server 130 whichcontains a database 132 (referred to as the data warehouse) for storingaudience member profile data. In some embodiments of the presentinvention, the same server may act as the first, second, and/or thirdservers 120, 150, and 130. A control console 140 may be operativelyconnected to the third server 130.

Reference will now be made in detail to the steps performed inaccordance with a first embodiment of the present invention, an exampleof which is illustrated in FIG. 2 . With reference to FIG. 2 , a firstmethod embodiment of the present invention may include three primarystages: data collection and profile generation; audience segmentationand analysis; and interface to external systems. During data collectionand profile generation, offline data sources 110 are searched to collectprofile data relating to individuals (referred to as audience members).This profile data is stored in the data warehouse 132. During audiencesegmentation and analysis, the profile data for audience members is usedto categorize the audience members into segments. For example, profiledata may indicate that a particular audience member subscribes to GolfMagazine, and thus has some interest in golf. That audience member maythen be included in a segment (i.e., group) of audience members that arealso interested in golf. During the interface to external systems stage,a targeting engine 152 may use the inclusion of the audience member in asegment to direct targeted external content to the audience members inthat segment. Continuing with the example posed above, audience membersin the “golf” segment may have golf related content sent to them as aresult.

With continued reference to FIG. 2 , data collection and profilegeneration may involve the offline databases 110, the extractor program122, and the data warehouse 132. Initial profile information aboutindividual audience members may be collected from available databases,such as a registration database 112 and a subscription database 114 bythe extractor 122. Registration and subscription databases 112 and 114may include audience member profile data collected as a result of theaudience member registering with, or subscribing to, any type ofservice, including but not limited to an Internet, magazine, newspaper,newsletter, cable, telephone, or wireless service, for example. Theseregistration and subscription databases may include a wide variety ofprofile information such as name, gender, age, birth date, home and workaddresses, telephone numbers, credit and charge card information,marital status, income level, number and age of children, employmenthistory, hobbies, recent purchases, educational status, interests,preferences, and the like, for example.

The extractor 122 is a program that is used to parse and identifyaudience member profile data from within a set of data. The extractor122 may be constructed using Java, Perl, C++, C#, SQL, or any othersimilar programming language. The extractor 122 may be resident on aserver 120, or multiple servers. The extractor 122 may be governed by aset of extraction rules that determine the source(s) and format(s) ofprofile data that may be used to create a profile for an audiencemember, and the categories of profile data to be collected. Theextraction rules may include a series of text rules (using matchingutilities such as string matching or regular expressions) that are usedto transform data in one form into a more standardized form whileremoving unneeded data. The extraction rules may include, for example, astatement such as “if string contains ‘A’ then output result ‘B’.”

The extractor 122 is operatively connected to a database 132 referred toas the data warehouse 132. The data warehouse 132 may be provided on asecond server 130, and may be used to store the profile and segmentaffinity data relating to audience members. The extractor 122 mayroutinely update the profile and segment affinity data in the datawarehouse 132. As new or modified profile data becomes available fromthe offline databases 110, the extractor 122 may modify the profile datafor an audience member. The extractor 122 may also receive profile datadirectly from the audience member computer 180 and/or the targetingengine 152 that indicates the website pages visited, the web searchesconducted, and the emails received by the audience member.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary flow diagram of the steps performed to generateaudience member profiles in accordance with the first embodiment of thepresent invention. The steps shown in FIG. 3 show the manner in whichthe extractor 122 obtains profile data indicating the online websitepages visited by an audience member. In step 210 the extractor searchesthe offline databases, such as registration and subscription databases,for profile data relating to individual audience members. The search ofthe offline databases may be initiated by an instruction received fromthe console 140. For example, an instruction could be given to collectprofile data for all audience members who subscribe to the New YorkTimes. Such an instruction necessitates that the extractor 122 haveaccess to the subscription database for the New York Times.

The extraction rules determine the profile data that is collected. Instep 212, the profile data extracted from the offline sources may bestored in the data warehouse. As there may be a need to determine theprofile data that is associated with a particular audience member, theextractor may assign a unique identifier to the profile data in step214. The unique identifier may be a string of numeric, alphabetic,alphanumeric, or other characters that may be used to identify oneaudience member.

In step 216, the unique identifier may be used to identify contentvisited by the audience member. The unique identifier may be so used byincluding it in a domain cookie associated with each website pagevisited by the audience member. Each of these domain cookies may bestored on the computer associated with the audience member, and may beused to identify each particular website page visited by the audiencemember as being associated with the unique identifier. In step 218, theextractor may determine the domain cookies that are stored on theaudience member's computer. Because these domain cookies include theunique identifier that identifies the particular audience member, theextractor may use these cookies to modify the profile data for aparticular audience member to reflect that the audience member visitedthe website pages associated wish the cookies. By combining the profiledata obtained from the offline databases with the profile data updatesthat occur as a result of the audience member visiting website pages, acomplete set of profile data may be collected for an audience member,reflecting both offline and online behavior and characteristics for theaudience member.

Tracking the online history of an audience member requires that thesystem be able to uniquely identify audience members. This tracking maybe accomplished by combining a unique identifier for each audiencemember with website pages in the network that the audience member hasvisited.

A method of providing the unique identifier in each of the domaincookies associated with a number of related website pages is illustratedin FIG. 4 . Each of the domain cookies associated with the website pagesvisited by the audience member may be modified to include the uniqueidentifier by designating one of the related website page domains as theprimary website domain. A primary domain cookie with the uniqueidentifier is established for the primary website domain. Usually, anetwork will already have a domain that can be used for this purpose. Ifnot, one of the domains in the network may be designed as the primarydomain.

With reference to FIG. 4 , an audience member browser 300 initiates theprocess in step 340 by requesting a website page from a site within thenetwork, www.domain1.com 310. Responsive to the website page requestdirected to www.domain1.com 310, a page is returned to the browser 300with an image tag which may reference the targeting engine 152 atte.domain1.com in step 342. In step 344, an image request is sent fromthe browser 300 to the targeting engine 152. If a unique identifier isnot included in the request, in step 346 a redirect is sent to thebrowser 300 to the targeting engine 152 now referenced aste.primarydomain.com. The redirect includes s reference to the originaltargeting engine reference in step 344, te.domain1.com. For example, theredirect may be http://te.primarydomain.com/blank.gif?te.domain1.com. Instep 348, the browser 300 may send this redirect request tote.primarydomain.com. Responsive to this request, in step 350 aprimarydomain.com cookie containing a unique identifier for the audiencemember is assigned to the browser 300. In step 352, a second redirect ismade of the browser 300 to te.domain1.com, that may include the sameunique identifier as set in the primary domain cookie. For example theredirect may be http://te.domain1.com/blank.gif?tid=7dha6wlk9927sha. Instep 354, the redirect request is returned with the originally requestedimage and a domain1.com cookie with the same unique identifier as theprimarydomain.com cookie.

After the process illustrated in FIG. 4 is completed, an audience membervisit to another website In the network, such as www.domain2.com, mayresult in a request for an image at te.domain2.com. If the TargetingEngine 152 does not detect a domain2.com cookie with a unique identifierfollowing the image request, the Targeting Engine 152 may redirect arequest to primarydomain.com for a cookie. Responsive to this request toprimarydomain.com, the primarydomain.com cookie is read and a redirectis sent back to the browser 300 containing the unique identifiercontained in the primary domain.com cookie. The unique identifier in theprimarydomain.com cookie is the same as previously set. The requestedimage may then be sent to the browser 300 along with the domain2.comcookie which may have the same unique identifier as theprimarydomain.com cookie. This process of providing a domain cookie withthe unique identifier is carried out each time the audience membervisits a new website page for the first time so long as the new websiteis related to the other websites in the network from the viewpoint ofthe Targeting Engine.

In a preferred embodiment, the Targeting Engine 152 may be a standaloneweb server, running on Apache, and using a MySQL database on a sharedserver. It is appreciated that the Targeting Engine 152 may be realizedusing alternative software and separate servers for Apache and thedatabase. The Targeting Engine 152 may direct the setting of anadditional cookie that may contain one or more segment identifiers.These cookies may then be used by other servers, such as, for example,an ad server, an email server, a streaming media server, and/or a webcontent server, to deliver targeted content to a particular audiencemember based upon one or more segments in the cookie.

With renewed reference to FIG. 2 , the audience segmentation andanalysis stage may be carried out by the data warehouse 132. The datawarehouse 132 may assign a particular audience member to one or moresegments based upon common profile characteristics. A segment ofaudience members may be defined as a group of audience members to whichthe system user (such as an advertiser) desires to send the samecontent. For example, returning to the example discussed above, asegment of audience members may be defined as all audience members thatthe system user selects to receive a particular golf advertisement. Theselection of the audience members for receipt of this advertisement maybe based on one or more audience member characteristics in the profiledata.

A method of associating an audience member with a segment is illustratedin FIG. 5 . In step 220, the profile data attribute values of audiencemembers who will qualify for inclusion in the segment may be defined bya set of segment rules. The segment rules may be selected using theconsole 140. Any of number and/or range of profile data attribute valuesmay be used to govern qualification for a segment. In step 222, the datawarehouse 132 may search the profile data to determine the audiencemembers that qualify for the audience segment. This search may becarried out at the request of the system user, and if desired, on aroutine basis, such as daily. In this manner, membership in the audiencesegment may be maintained up to date. In step 224, the data warehouse132 may store segment affinity data to indicate the audience membersthat are included in a particular segment. It is appreciated that thesegment affinity data may indicate that an audience member is in morethan one segment. The segment affinity data is defined by a set of rulesbased upon the behavior and characteristics in the audience profile.Once a set of rules that define the segment affinity data areidentified, a segment identifier is assigned to that particular set ofrules. This segment identifier is then sent to the Targeting Engine 152,along with the audience unique identifier assigned previously by theTargeting Engine 152. In step 226, when the Targeting Engine 152 isnotified that an audience member has requested a website page in thenetwork, the Targeting Engine stores a segment-targeting cookie on theaudience member's computer. The segment-targeting cookie includes thesegment identifier that identifies the segments that the audience memberis included in. The method of storing the segment-targeting cookie on anaudience member computer is described in further detail below inconnection with FIG. 6 .

Profile data for audience members may also be manually analyzed to buildsegments. With renewed reference to FIG. 2 , the server or servers thathost the Targeting Engine 152 and the data warehouse 132 may beoperatively connected to the console 140. The console 140 may be used todesignate the offline databases used to initially populate the datawarehouse with profile information, to set the rules for collectingprofile information, and to create and view reports showing audiencemember profile data, audience member segment affinity data, and audiencemember Internet activity.

A method of delivering targeted content to an audience member based onthe segment affinity data is illustrated in FIG. 6 . With reference toFIG. 6 , an audience member requests a website page in the network ofrelated websites in step 230. The Targeting Engine is notified of thewebsite page request in step 232. Responsive to the audience membersrequest for a website page, in step 234 the Targeting Engine determineswhether or not a domain cookie, associated with the requested websitepage, includes a unique identifier for the audience member. If a uniqueidentifier is not identified, the Targeting Engine will provide awebsite domain cookie with a unique identifier as described above inconnection with FIG. 4 . Once a website domain cookie is provided with aunique identifier, in step 236 the Targeting Engine may determinewhether or not a segment-targeting cookie is already associated with theaudience member in the data warehouse. The segment -targeting cookie mayinclude a segment identifier that indicates the segment(s) to which theaudience member belongs. If segment affinity data is stored in the datawarehouse for the audience member, then a segment-targeting cookie iscreated and stored in the audience member computer with the appropriatesegment identifier in step 238. In step 240, content may be delivered tothe audience member based on the segment identifier in thesegment-targeting cookie stored in the audience member computer.

If no segment-targeting cookie is identified in step 236, the TargetingEngine may query the data warehouse for any segment affinity dataassociated with the audience member. If no segment affinity data isstored for the audience member, a default segment -targeting cookie maybe stored in the audience member computer. The default segment-targeting cookie may automatically expire after some fixed period oftime, such as one day for example.

Once a segment-targeting cookie is stored on the audience membercomputer, the Targeting Engine may periodically update it with newsegment affinity data for the audience member. Updating may occurautomatically at fixed intervals, and/or in response to modifications tothe profile data for the audience member.

A wide variety of content may be provided to the audience member as aresult of the segment-targeting cookie being stored on the audiencemember computer. With renewed reference to FIG. 2 , content may include,but is not limited to website page advertisements, pop-upadvertisements, emails, or the like.

The system 10 of the present invention is adapted to segment and targetaudience members for delivering content to an audience member across aplurality of digital mediums. The digital mediums may be heterogeneous,and may include, but are not limited to, a website network, a cablesystem, a non-web based internet network, a wireless communicationssystem, such as a cellular phone or RF network, and/or any digitalmedium in which the means tor interfacing the audience member with thedigital content is uniquely addressable. It is contemplated that thedigital medium may include other consumer technologies not yetdeveloped.

With reference to FIG. 7 , in which like reference characters refer tolike elements, a system architecture for delivering content to anaudience member across a plurality of digital mediums according to oneembodiment of the present invention is shown. The system includes adigital cable network 400. The digital cable network 400 may include ahome television having a uniquely addressable cable set-top box 480 as ameans for interfacing the audience member with digital content. Thedigital cable network 400 may further include a cable head-end 450 fordelivering segment targeted content to the set-top box 480. As will beapparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, the head-end 450 mayinclude means for receiving a digital signal, such as. for example, asatellite receiving antennae, from a programming processor 460. Theprogramming processor 460 programs the content to be delivered to theaudience member, and provides the appropriate digital signal to thehead-end 450. The programming processor 460 may be in communication witha cable company database 430 which may store, for example, subscriptiondata relating to the audience member. The data may include a uniqueidentifier of the audience member within the cable network 400. Theprogramming processor 460 may interface with the system 10 of thepresent invention through a cable network/Internet bridge 440. Asdiscussed above, the system 10 may include an audience member profile.

The digital cable network 400 may further include a cable companywebsite provided by a web server 470 and accessible by the audiencemember via the Internet. The audience member may access the website 470to request a service, such as, for example, ordering a movie, placing arepair order, and changing the level of cable service. The audiencemember may access the website 470 by providing the audience member'scable network identifier.

The embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 7 may be operatedas follows for delivering content to an audience member across aplurality of digital mediums. The audience member may visit a websiteprovided by a web server 170 The web server 170 may receive a requestfor content from the audience member, and provide website pages to anaudience member computer 180 in a conventional manner. The website 170may be owned by, or affiliated with, the owner of the cable network 400and the website 470. The audience member may visit other sites relatedto the website 170 within a network, if necessary, a unique audiencemember identifier related to the website network is assigned to theaudience member, and profile data is collected and stored, substantiallyas described above in connection with FIGS. 3 and 4 . The audiencemember may be associated with an audience segment defined by a set ofsegment rules substantially as described above in connection with FIG. 5.

The audience member may visit the website 470 to request a service fromthe cable company, at the same time providing the audience member'sunique identifier within the cable network 400. The programmingprocessor 460 may read the audience member's web network identifier, andassociate the audience member's cable network identifier with thisidentifier. The programming processor 460 may then access the system 10through the bridge 440. and accesses the segment affinity data relatingto the particular audience member using the web network identifier.Based on the audience segment affinity data, the programming processor460 defines the programming rules for the audience segment within thecable network 400. The appropriate digital signal is then sent to thecable head -end 450, and the head-end 450 delivers the audience membertargeted content via the set -top box 480 and the audience member's hometelevision. The preferences and behavior of the audience member withinthe network 400 may also be used to update the member's profile withinthe system 10. In this manner, the audience member's preference andbehavioral data is synchronized across a plurality of mediums into acommon profile, and the content delivered to the audience member viathose mediums may be customized based upon the characteristics of theprofile.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variations andmodifications of the present invention can be made without departingfrom the scope or spirit of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer implemented method of deliveringcontent from a first digital media server to an audience memberelectronic device, and delivering content from a digital medium to aninterface with a second digital media server, the method comprising:associating, by the first digital media server, a unique first digitalidentifier with access by an audience member electronic device to afirst digital media server; associating, by the second digital mediaserver, a unique second digital identifier with access by the audiencemember electronic device to the second digital media server; associatingthe unique first digital identifier and the unique second digitalidentifier with a segment of audience member electronic devices based onstored audience member profile data; transmitting first content to theaudience member electronic device via the first digital media serverbased on the association of the unique first digital identifier with thesegment of audience member electronic devices; and transmitting secondcontent to audience member electronic device via the second digitalmedia server based on the association of the unique second digitalidentifier with the segment of audience member electronic devices. 2.The method of claim 1, wherein the first digital media server and thesecond digital media server each comprise a digital media server havinga uniquely addressable interface.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein thefirst digital media server comprises a web server storing a web page ofa website, and the second digital media server comprises a digital mediaserver selected from the group consisting of: a cable system, a wirelesscommunications system, and a non-web based medium.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the first digital media server comprises a web serverstoring a web page of a website, and the second digital media servercomprises a digital cable system.
 5. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: associating the unique first digital identifier with theunique second digital identifier upon the audience member requesting aweb page of a website associated with the second digital media server.6. The method of claim 5, further comprising: receiving, from theaudience member via the web page of the website associated with thesecond digital media server, a request to at least one of order a movie,place a repair or service order, or change a level of service of thesecond digital media server.
 7. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: identifying, by one or more servers, the segment of audiencemember electronic devices and interface with the second digital mediaserver with a segment identifier included in a segment-targeting cookie;storing the segment-targeting cookie in a memory associated with theaudience member electronic device; and transmitting content to theaudience member electronic device based on the segment identifier. 8.The method of claim 1, wherein the first digital media server delivers arequest for a first web page of a website from the audience memberelectronic device, the method further comprising: storing a cookieassociated with the first web page of the website in a memory associatedwith the audience member electronic device; identifying the unique firstdigital identifier for the audience member electronic device in thecookie; and associating the audience member electronic device withprofile data of the audience member based on the unique first digitalidentifier.
 9. The method of claim 6, further comprising: identifyingthe segment of audience member electronic devices and the interface witha segment identifier included in a segment-targeting cookie; storing thesegment-targeting cookie in a memory associated with the audience memberelectronic device; and transmitting content to the audience memberelectronic device based on the segment identifier.
 10. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: updating profile data of the audiencemember based on use by the audience member of the interface; andtransmitting additional first content to the audience member electronicdevice via the first digital media server based on use by the audiencemember of the interface and the association of the unique first digitalidentifier with the segment of audience member electronic devices.
 11. Acomputer-implemented method for transmitting content to an electronicdevice of a user, and transmitting content via a subscription-baseddigital media server to an interface with the subscription-based digitalmedia server, the method comprising: associating use by the user of anaudience member electronic device with a first unique online identifier;associating use by the user of the audience member electronic devicewith a second unique subscriber identifier associated with asubscription-based digital media server; associating the audience memberelectronic device with a segment of audience members having one or morecommon profile characteristics; transmitting first content to theaudience member electronic device based on an association of the firstunique online identifier of use by the user of the audience memberelectronic device with the segment of audience members; and transmittingsecond content via a subscription-based digital media server to theaudience member electronic device of the user, based on an associationof a second unique subscriber identifier of use by the user of theaudience member electronic device with the segment of audience members.12. The method of claim 1, further comprising: collecting profile datafrom two or more sources selected from the group of: a database, a webpage of a website requests, advertisement requests, user survey data,direct response data, and search requests; and storing the collectedprofile data in a profile database.
 13. The method of claim 11 whereinthe segment of audience members is defined by rules that recognize anycommon affinity between two or more audience member electronic devices.14. The method of claim 11 wherein the first content is transmitted tothe electronic device of the user by a server selected from the groupof: an advertisement server, an email server, a streaming media server,and a website server.
 15. The method of claim 12 wherein associating theelectronic device of the user with a segment of audience members furthercomprises: comparing the collected and stored profile data of aplurality of client electronic devices; and forming a segment ofaudience members based on a comparison of the collected and storedprofile data of the plurality of client electronic devices.
 16. Themethod of claim 12, further comprising: periodically collectingadditional profile data based on the use of the electronic device by theuser; and periodically identifying additional audience member segmentsfor associating with the electronic device of the user, based on theperiodically collected additional profile data.
 17. The method of claim12, further comprising: assigning to the electronic device of the user adomain cookie containing the first unique online identifier for abrowser associated with the electronic device of the user; identifyingthe first unique online identifier for the browser in the domain cookie;accessing the stored profile data for the electronic device of the userfrom the database in response to identification of the first uniqueonline identifier for the browser; transmitting a segment-targetingcookie, which includes a segment identifier for the segment of audiencemembers to the electronic device of the user, wherein the segmentidentifier is distinct from the first unique online identifier;receiving a request for a web page of a website from the electronicdevice of the user; and transmitting content to the electronic device ofthe user based on the segment identifier in response to receiving therequest for the web page of the website.
 18. The method of claim 17further comprising: determining whether a domain cookie with a uniqueonline identifier for the browser is absent; assigning a second domaincookie containing a unique identifier to the browser in response todetermining the domain cookie with the unique online identifier for thebrowser is absent; and transmitting the second domain cookie to theelectronic device of the user.
 19. The method of claim 18 wherein theelectronic device of the user is associated with a default segment ofclient electronic devices as a result of transmitting the second domaincookie to the electronic device of the user.
 20. The method of claim 17further comprising: receiving a request from the electronic device ofthe user to access a primary web page of a website; providing theelectronic device of the user with a primary website cookie associatedwith the primary web page of the website, the primary website cookiehaving a unique identifier for the electronic device of the user; andmodifying the domain cookie transmitted to the electronic device of theuser to contain the first unique online identifier for the browser inresponse to transmission of the primary website cookie to the electronicdevice of the user.